Technology overload not eating into our sleep

Scientists have debunked the popular belief that technology overload from computers and mobile phones is eating into our sleep.

Scientists have debunked the popular belief that technology overload from computers and mobile phones is eating into our sleep.

According to Nicholas Glozier and his colleagues at the University of Sydney, there has been no significant change over almost 20 years in the average amount of sleep that Australians are getting.

For the study, the researchers used figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to compare sleeping patterns in 1992, 1997 and 2006.

"Public health concerns over declining sleep duration do not appear to be warranted," the Herald Sun quoted the authors as saying.

"The time allocated to sleep by Australian adults appears to have withstood the challenges of societal and technological change during this period," they said.

The authors found that sleep duration was associated with higher education, higher income, longer work and having two or more children in the household.

The researchers found that their findings were positive, as sleep deprivation is associated with health issues including premature death, heart disease, obesity, accident and injury, and mental health problems.

The study has been recently published in the Australian Medical Journal.